General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm Not Sure How To Ask This... But... Is Anybody Else Feeling A Great Nauseous Forboding About... [View all]frazzled
(18,402 posts)If you immerse yourself in the hyperbolic, doom and gloom world of those who want you to believe that this is some special time, worse than any other, and on the brink of a police state, you will believe this. If, on the other hand, you remember any of the following from your lifetime or recent history, you will recall that things have been far worse (with brief explanations for those who have forgotten or never heard of these things):
1. Cointelpro: (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations. Tactics included discrediting targets through psychological warfare; smearing individuals and groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media; harassment; wrongful imprisonment; and illegal violence, including assassination. (Think: Fred Hampton) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO
2. House Un-American Activities Committee: (HUAC) was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having Communist ties. Through its power to subpoena witness and hold people in contempt of Congress, HUAC often pressured witnesses to surrender names and other information that could lead to the apprehension of Communists and Communist sympathizers. Committee members often branded witnesses as "red" if they refused to comply or hesitated in answering committee questions. ... served as the model upon which Senator Joseph McCarthy would conduct his investigative hearings in the early 1950s. http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/huac.cfm
3. Iran-Contra: Secret shadow government activity in which arms were secretly and illegally sold to Iran and the profits were diverted to support Nicaraguan Contras, in express violation of the law enacted by Congress that forbid such funding.
4. Kent State shootings: On May 4, l970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University (antiwar) demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/lewis/lewihen.htm
5. Japanese-American internment: the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Of those interned, 62% were American citizens http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
Okay, I don't have the time today to go on and on and on, but I could. About the depredations of the Civil Rights movement, where people were hosed and beaten to a pulp, the assassinations and race riots, the inequalities of the draft, which sent millions of unwilling young people off to war and to death or dismemberment.
And yes, corporate control: which has been an issue since the 1980s and people seem to think sprung full blown from the head of Medusa just in 2008 (or in the last decade). It's been with us for decades and decades.